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User blog:Are You Freddy For Ready/Dealings in Whitley's Pub
A really long convo me and Jaz though would be best if made into a blog. ---- Oda watched as the tiger walked away. As soon as he was gone, they pulled out their notes from earlier that night, and began to analyze them, scribbling down more notes on some loose parchment. A short white mouse anthro walked up to Oda’s table, grabbing the top of the chair with his right hand. “May I?” Oda raised their eyes from their notes, and gave the rodent a quick once-over. They slid the notes into a neat stack, and but it into a leather pouch that hung at their side. “Of course. How can I help you?” “I have a contract you may be interested in,” the mouse anthro says, moving the chair for him to sit in it. He put his elbows onto the table and bridged his fingers, resting his chin on them. “You are an assassin, yes?” “I would be significantly more surprised to hear this offer if I wasn’t,” Oda replied, no obvious change in their tone or expression, though their mask was hiding everything but their red eyes. “Indeed,” the mouse says. He puts his hand up and signals for a waitress. “Would you like a drink? Wine perhaps?” “I don’t drink,” Oda said without missing a beat. “And I’m not hungry, either. Let’s just talk about what you have to put on the table, shall we?” “Mmm,” he says, turning to the waitress that just arrived. “White wine please,” he tells her, then turns back to Oda, bridging his fingers. “First off, introductions. I am Bernie, an agent of one called Hark. Have you heard of them?” “Can’t say I have,” the assassin answered. “I take it they’ve put you up to hiring the assassin for a job? Or are you trying to stage a coup and get rid of them?” “The former,” Bernie says. “You are among a couple I have approached with this job. The Raven, for instance, is one other. You’ve been acquainted, haven’t you?” “Briefly.” Oda leaned back in their chair, sweeping the pub with their eyes. “The target,” Bernie starts before the waitress returns, dropping off the wine. “Thank you. The target is a Harss. Heard of them?” he says as he takes a vial out of his coat, uncorking it and shaking a few drops into the wine. Oda watched the vial as they responded. “Quite the popular name around this city. Which one?” “Juliet,” Bernie responds. He corks the vial and places it back into his coat, then takes a sip of the wine. “The one who allegedly went missing?” “Eighteen years ago, yes,” Bernie says, smiling. “You know your history.” “I like to read up on where I am. It makes tracking much easier,” Oda explained. “Can’t hardly get anything done if you don’t know what you’re dealing with.” “Indeed,” Bernie replies. “Well then, that makes my job of explanation a lot easier. As you can probably imagine, we don’t know much about the Juliet,” he reaches into his bag and pulls out a folder of notes, placing it on the table. The file read Juliet Harss on it. “All we know are from less than reputable sources and, thanks to a mole, her Swordsmen File. What isn’t behind black ink, that is.” “All I need is a description of her appearance, and incentive to complete the job,” Oda said, looking down at the papers. “I’m sure you’ll understand if I take my time, too.” “The folder will contain last known appearance, and additional details,” Bernie assures. “I assume you’ll want a sum beforehand?” “My typical fees are half before, and half after. How much you pay me determines how important your contract is to me.” “I see,” Bernie states, reaching into the bag again. “How about, five platinum now,” he starts, taking out the five platinum coins. “And fifteen when you’ve completed it?” Oda raised their head, and looked at Bernie appraisingly. “That’s quite different than half and half.” “I feel that the payoff should be better than the down payment,” Bernie explains. “Gives more of an incentive. A drive to complete it.” Oda picked up the file on the table, and started flipping through it before they made another response. “She was very skillful,” they noted. “Indeed,” Bernie agrees. “‘Hyper Lethal’ as they called her. But I’m sure you can handle her, no?” Oda looked at the physical description one last time, committing every detail to memory. “I will take it on, but I will not promise you results. There have been numerous reports of lost assassins from this area in the past years, and this woman seems a likely candidate for the reason they’ve gone missing. For this particular contract, I’ll alter my terms. Don’t pay me before, but if I come through for you, I expect the full twenty.” Bernie smiles and puts away the coin. “Seems reasonable,” he says, taking another sip of wine. “And don’t expect fast results either. I imagine most of the other assassins sent after her were in too much of a rush, and she capitalized on that,” the assassin concluded. “I wouldn’t know. I just promise the coin, give them a copy of the file, and send them on their way,” Bernie states. “Maybe they were killed. Maybe they moved on to other things. Who knows?” Oda made no reply to this comment. Instead, they pulled out a small, envelope, marked with a dark purple ink. “Your first word from me will show up in an envelope much like this. I assume that this is an acceptable location for pickup?” “You would be wrong,” Bernie states. “Go to the Chariot Pub in Ketridge. There will be one of Hark’s agents. They’ll only be there from 8pm to 10pm. Talk to them and they’ll send your envelope to Hark.” “Very well.” Oda waited in silence for a moment. “Is there anything else you need?” “Yes, actually,” Bernie says, taking a notepad out of his bag. “I need a name. You know, to keep track of the assassins we’ve hired. I’m sure you understand?” “The shadow leaper,” Oda replied. “Though quite the clichéd name, that’s what I’ve been called.” “Not the worst title I’ve heard,” Bernie states. He stands up and finishes off his wine. “That is all. May our paths cross again, Shadow Leaper.” He puts the empty wine glass onto a waitress’ tray of dirty dishes and then walked toward the door, passing by a tall figure wearing a cloak and mask as he left. Oda looked down at the file left on the table, and swept it into their bag. They returned to their notes from the fights earlier that day. The cloaked figure from the back of the pub walked up to Oda’s table, standing next to the table’s chair. “Leaper,” the figure says, their voice feminine though with an edge to it. Oda looked up at the figure, their eyes narrowing slightly. “How can I help you?” they asked, their voice betraying the smallest hint of annoyance. The figure seemed to be staring at Oda’s notes, though it was hard to tell with the mask and hood. “You’ve been taking notes on the fights, haven’t you?” “Yes. Why?” “I missed my next opponent’s fight.” “You want to look over my notes to get a leg up?” They asked, the annoyance falling out of their voice, and being replaced by intrigue. “Yes,” the figure says. “Take a seat, Maria,” Oda replied. The figure, Maria, sat down on the still pulled out chair. “I’ve been taking my own but it’s difficult to take notes on a match you’ve missed.” Oda reached into their bag, and pulled out a stack of other notes. “For the championship match, it may also help to have a second set of eyes on the matches you saw, too.” They began digging through the stack, pulling out what notes they had on all of Gravus Herechild’s matches. Maria nods. She watches as Oda goes through their stack of notes, waiting. “So?” she says after assuming they had pulled all of them out. “So here they are,” They said, pushing the smaller stack across the table. “His greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. I’ve come up with six different ways to disarm or disable him based on how he holds his sword alone.” “Yes, I have devised ways as well,” Maria states. “His hilt guard is his weakest link. Difficult to drop the sword.” “Indeed,” Oda agreed. “Well, the notes are there. You can peruse them at your leisure, provided you give them back.” “Thanks,” Maria says, grabbing the pile of notes, standing, and walking to the empty booth against the wall of the pub. Category:Blog posts